BRAVE STAR
singing like a slow scent beneath the sunArchive for September, 2007
106.
stumbled upon mati klarwein today. he was famous for his illustrations on several album covers including santana’s abraxas and miles davis’ bitches brew. of course, i had seen his work before but never thought to attach a name. well, now that i have, there it is.
105.
shazam. i just heard that tracie morris is gonna be the cpcw fellow in poetics next semester at penn, meaning that i will be taking a motherfucking class with her!
holla!
nb: click her name to hear a reading she gave at the kelly writers house several years ago.
104.
so i’m procrastinating. again.
watch this:
garifuna women singing. belize is going to have to fit in somewhere in the next two years. yes.
103.
i need to be reading this for class tonite…but i just wanted to share two things:
1– As has introduced me to yet another amazing caboverdiana…Mayra Andrade. She is 23, has lived all around the world, and she writes beautiful songs. Listen to her album here. Just another reason why I’m going to Cape Verde next summer.
2– Two of my favorite writers, Edwidge Danticat and Junot Diaz are featured in this month’s Poets and Writers magazine. Pick it up!
a good wish,
a
102.
found:
leveza by Geni Guimarães
fechou os olhos;
afastou a carne,
separou os ossos,
colocou sobre a mesa.
retornou:
trouxe o coracão,
o estômago,
um piano,
um poema,
umas tripas presas no braço do violão.
e quando
se contemplava
em vísceras,
meiadas de ruidos musicais,
sentiu fome.
se alimentou dum verso,
flutuou.
lightness
she closed her eyes;
removed the flesh,
separated the bones,
seized control of the lung,
put it on the table.
she returned:
brought the heart,
the stomach,
a piano,
a poem,
some guts imprisoned on the bridge of a guitar.
and when
she was contemplating herself
viscerally,
intertwined with musical notes,
she felt hungry.
she fed herself with a verse,
she floated.
101.
decided on a whim to do some new music research…here’s who i came up with:
tiombe lockhart: i was down with her older songs with the platinum pied pipers, but this stuff is niiiiice. get with it.
coultrain: i’m torn about him…but jj gives a thumbs up.
saadiq: one funky half of ppp
ayah: this girl is dope and she’s only 21.
alice coltrane: i know i have already raved about her, but please listen to the song “turiya and ramakrishna.” she has a posthumous album coming out at some point this year, too, so look out!
throwback video pick>>
nina simone: “i love you, porgy” live 1962. oooh, i finally ordered her autobiography. should be here any day now…
til then, big love!
a
100.
whew! i have been up and at ‘em recently. last weekend i went up to new york for my own j. holiday, my homie jj hustletuck that is… i met up with jj last friday and we went downtown to check out hustlenomics at m1-5 where Afrika Bambaataa was spinning. it was fun, although we did arrive too late the catch the art/fashion show which i’m sure was fly and fabulous as well. on saturday, we went down to fulton mall where scenes from one of my favorite films, she’s gotta have it, were shot. then we went up to harlem so i could buy some scented oils among other things. got my signature white amber… so lovely. then saturday night we went down to SOB’s to catch As and Alo Brasil play their first show in new york. jj had a lil trouble at the door…but once we got in, we had a wonderful time. i samba’d my way back to salvador. i even got to dance on stage which was a nice bonus. came back to philly on sunday, leaving my library book on the chinatown bus…i’m praying that a good samaritan will return it for me…doubtful but whatever. i will be paying the 100$ fine for that one. ugh. anyway, the rest of this week has also been full of things, but mostly of work. my classes are great. i’m taking five: africans in latin america, history of sexuality in america, contemporary int’l film, reading the female body and southern women writers. i think i also found a teacher to be my major advisor. Thaddious Davis is phenomenal…she taught Edwidge Danticat at Barnard, eek! anyway, i’m excited about learning new things this semester even though i have spent every waking moment, it seems, doing course reading…in the middle of the week though, i did decide to take a little ikea trip, which ended in a new mattress and bedspread, a bookcase and curtains. see: 
the fotos are kinda reversed and poor quality cuz i had to take them on my macbook but you get the idea…i scared myself a lil with how excited about redecorating i was…but now my room is the bomb.com.
anyway, other things in my life have been dandy. people are actually applying to be a part of the brave star collective. i am sooooo happy. i can’t believe my idea is coming into fruition. there is still work to be done, but i am very amazed with myself, if no one else is :)
yeah, so things are spectacular. life is full. i am breathing and happy.
a good wish to all y’all!
luv,
a
099.
Many people don’t know this, but my parents recently split up, so my family has been doing a whole lot of rearranging and in the middle of the shuffle, I came across something of my mom’s that I wanted to share. My mom has always been into proverbs and inspirational quotations. I mean, I was reading Iyanla and everybody else since before I can remember. But anyway, in this one box, mostly full of junk, I found several sheets of legal paper folded in half, and here is what they said:
1. Accept that some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue.
2. Thanks cost nothing.
3. Don’t look where you fell, but where you slipped.
4. Rivalry is better than envy.
5. Endurance pierces marble.
6. When a door closes, a window opens.
7. Be true to yourself.
8. There can be no rainbow without the storm.
9. Hindsight is 20/20.
10. Making money selling manure is better than losing money selling musk.
11. The best things in life aren’t things.
12. The one being carried does not realize how far the town is.
13. Evil knows where evil sleeps.
14. The want of a thing is sometimes more than it’s worth.
15. A big head is a big load.
16. If something that was going to chop your head off only knocked off your cap, you should be grateful.
17. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
18. Hold a friend with both of your hands.
19. The best way to have a friend is to be one.
20. He who chatters with you will chatter of you.
21. There is no right way to do the wrong thing.
22. (Omitted by accident…)
23. The noise of the wheel does not measure the weight of the load.
24. As useless as a blind man turning around to look.
25. Truth tellers make no mistakes.
26. The top of the hill is harder to find than the bottom.
27. If you wait for tommorrow, tommorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tommorrow, tommorrow comes.
28. An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend.
29. At the gate of patience, there is no crowding.
30. No one is without knowledge except he who asks no questions.
31. A different world cannot be had by indifferent people.
32. DUH!
33. Ya gotta wanna
34. Hang in there!
35. Live well. Laugh often. Love much.
36. A true friend knows who you are but likes you anyway.
37. Friendship is to people, what sunshine is to flowers.
38. You break it, you pay for it.
39. If you aim at nothing, you’ll probably hit it.
40. Be yourself, an original is hard to copy.
41. You must believe to achieve.
42. Tough times don’t last, tough people do.
43. Be the best you can be.
44. Life is what you make it.
45. Aging is inevitable, maturing is optional.
46. Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.
47. Accomplishments are their own rewards.
48. Attitude defies limitations and exceeds expectations.
49. Success tommorrow relies on effective strategy today.
50. Perseverance is a matter of hanging on after others have let go.
51. We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
52. Sow the seeds of productivity & harvest the benefits of success.
53. May we be equals with differences.
I don’t know why she stopped at 53 or why she was even making this list in the first place, but there you have it. Some maternal wisdom.
a good wish,
a
098.
voce gosta de hippy-hoppy, ne?
let me introduce you to:
o senhor, BNegão. Quem e? Escute a musica!
Beijos!
edit: i forgot to mention that his website has FREE downloads. get ‘em quick!
097.
dang! i’ve been a busy bee the past few days. on wednesday, as and i saw rocket science. it was surprisingly funny and if anything made me thankful that high school is over. then we spent a little more time together, listening to some new brasilian music. he hooked me up with a lil bit o’ mayra and some more of miss tavares, lovely caboverdianas. i don’t really know where things are going with as, but i definitely am enjoying myself… on thursday chauncy, graham and i wandered over to the rotunda to hit up the gathering with all the hip-hop heads and the youngbuls. we danced, chatted up a couple of cuties, enjoyed the scenery, you know. it was good times. much of friday has disappeared from my memory. i chilled with jj for a bit though. we watched clockers and i got depressed. that movie always reminds me about people that i have forgotten. saturday was a big day. stella and i moseyed around in the clark park flea market. we chilled with ting for minute, who was selling her dope vintage ish. then we made our way up to 50th and b’more for the n2n street fest. there were folks everywhere. it was beautiful. i had some tasty water ice, too. we sat down in the grass for minute, to rest our aching knees and take things in. there was so much going on: four djs spread across the block, two stages, steppers, babies, delicious food, bubbles, and plenty of emcees. state senator anthony williams is doing good things. still waiting for mos def to show up, we decided to trek back down to the flea market for a hot-gurl check in with ting. we ended up shopping around for vinyl records for a while before making our way to ting’s side of the park. i picked up a beautiful roberta flack album, quiet fire. i can’t wait to listen to it. i carried it around with me for the rest of night. i just liked having ms. flack’s shining smile and afro halo there under my arm all night. 
so eventually we walked back up to 50th, expecting mos to go on soon…and he didn’t. instead we got some philly heads: musiq, just greg, verso, chavous, and ethel cee, all dope in their own right. finally the sky grew purple, the crowd grew larger, and mos appeared. grey baseball shirt, pastel africa chain, tortoise shell glasses. lookin fine as usual. he performed four or five songs and of course me and stella were standing there in the very front waving and smiling and starstruck as if this wasn’t the third or fourth time we’ve heard mos def sing gregory isaacs in the middle of ms. fat booty. “if i don’t, i don’t have you. i don’t want nobody else…” it’s all good though. can’t complain about things that are free. since mr. dante t. smith took his sweet time getting to philly, the rest of our plans for the night got pushed back. i was tryin to make it up to the alo brasil show at world cafe live on time to catch the new opening but instead got there in the middle of the first set. it was all good though. they were hot. especially the dancers, mia and adrienne really tore it up last night. alo even added a new song, mama africa a la chico cesar, which was dope. oh and they also had who-i-am of society park drop a lil fire. anyway, i had fun. what a great full day before the madness of school begins. damn. that would be tommorrow. well y’all there’s my update.
peace,
a
